The CIO has long been seen as the gatekeeper for the organization's technologies. What is acceptable to use? What needs to be avoided? What applications add value to the business, and which come with too many problems to worry with? But as more and more of the business is wholly dependent on technologies of all sorts to do their daily jobs, it just isn't practical (and in many cases, possible) for the CIO to review, evaluate, and issue an okay for each new technology the organization adopts.

Additionally, users are adopting the applications, devices, and other solutions they want, anyway. One of the most challenging and time-consuming tasks for today's IT department is hunting down and weeding out shadow IT. Waiting for the CIO to approve new technology creates unnecessary bottlenecks and leaves out one of the most important factors in whether or not to adopt a new technology: what the users actually want.

Why the CIO's Time is Better Spent Working on Integration

Is it time for the CIO to take the road less traveled? Many CIOs are abandoning the outdated process of reviewing and approving new technologies and refocusing their efforts on integrating the technologies the users and departments are embracing.

So, instead of wasting time and energy on an endeavor that isn't bringing much success, anyway, the CIO's time is better spent working towards integrating all of these new devices, applications, databases, etc. and how the new technologies impact network performance. Integration is the solution to a lot of issues around the enterprise. Integration eliminates data silos and assures that the systems that serve the organization are connected, streamlined, and working efficiently.

A Lack of Integration Causes Silos

Without integration, the enterprise is stuck with various systems for different activities, each of which operates wholly independent of one another. Departments can only see what's going on in their particular workflow, and are completely isolated from what's going on in the organization as a whole. Finance can't properly project next year's revenue, because they do not have a complete picture of what's going on everywhere else. Similarly, marketing and sales are isolated from what's coming down the pipeline in R&D. Essentially, the right hand can never tell what that left hand is up to.

Integration breaks up those data silos that keep the organization from acting in concert. Without silos, you can achieve a complete, 360-degree view of the organization, its health, what the individual departments are up to, and much more.

When the CIO begins focusing on integrating these systems, the company stops acting like a bunch of independent, unconnected departments and begins operating as a complete and interconnected organism. Systems, devices, and applications work together in concert, empowering all of the workers to perform efficiently and without unnecessary snags.

Is it time to refocus your efforts from the never-ending process of okaying new technologies to working toward integrating the systems and applications your business actually uses?